When archaeologists dig up skulls, they sometimes find skulls that are truly strange and seem to have nothing to do with human evolutionary history as we understand it. Usually, a very strange skull is passed off as merely a deformity. Some of the most mysterious skulls ever discovered by archaeologists.

Some of these strange skulls, however, might be a look into a prehistoric world that is very different from the current understanding of it.

Sometimes people find skulls that seem like they are of trolls, or demons, or other creatures of mythology. Of all the skulls ever discovered by scientists, these are five of the strangest.

In the 1800s, while digging up a Native American burial ground, a group of Pennsylvanians discovered that the skulls had large horns. Some of the skeletons were seven feet tall! The remains were from the thirteenth century. Could horned people have lived in Pennsylvania in the thirteenth century? If so, could such people still live in the wilderness even today? The skulls unfortunately no longer exist. They were said to have once been in a museum in Philadelphia, but they cannot be found now.

Unlike the horned skulls of Philadelphia, another group of strange skulls found in South America in the 1920s still exist. The skulls are cone-shaped and thousands of years old. The coned head shapes could have been caused by the practice of binding infant’s heads. But, binding the head does not increase the size of the brain. The skulls found were 25% larger and more than one and a half times the weight of any other skulls found anywhere. According to the director of a nearby museum of history, DNA tests have shown their genetic code to be extremely strange.

The most famous of all mysterious skulls is the so-called Star-child skull, found in Mexico in the 1930s. The skull very large, strangely shaped and seems to suggest a being that has evolved far beyond modern humans. Was the Star-child the product of a crossing between a human and an extraterrestrial, as some say? While some say that the skull is merely deformed,

DNA tests suggest otherwise. An eastern European skull that does not resemble that of a human or any known animal is also of interest. Found long ago in the Rhodope mountains, the skull does not look anything like that of a human and has never been argued to be a mere human deformity. It does not resemble any living animal, nor does it seem like it might have been an animal that was merely deformed. Pictures of the skull exist, but someone offered the owner a large sum of money for it, and it is now lost to us.

As well as the skulls of strange humans and animals, the carved crystal skulls of South America also inspire wonder. Are they merely examples of extremely well-crafted ancient artwork? Some consider them to be powerful magical artifacts. The crystal skulls are said to cause hallucinations and strange occurrences.